Teachers' occupational burnout model: The role of psychological flexibility, meaning in life and work engagement

This study aimed at investigating the relationship between teachers' occupational burnout, and their psychological flexibility, meaning in life and work engagement. Part of this correlational study, the Teacher Psychological Flexibility Scale (TPFS) was developed. The study group consisted of 1292 teachers working in the districts of Ankara and Denizli. We tested the reliability and validity of the scale via Explanatory and Confirmatory Factor. The TPFS is composed of 23 items and six dimensions, which are contact with the present moment, acceptance, cognitive defusion, self as context, values, and committed action. At the end of the analysis, we concluded that the goodness of fit indices of this structure showed an acceptable level of fit with the findings obtained from another study group. We collected the data on Occupational Burnout Model to investigate the occupational burnout in teachers via the Burnout Scale, Teacher Psychological Flexibility Scale, the Inventory of Meaning of Life, Utrecht Work Engagement Scale and Personal Information Form. According to the study findings, teachers' meaning in life and work engagement predicted their psychological flexibility and occupational burnout at a statistically significant level. Although there was a statistically significant negative relationship between teachers' psychological flexibility and occupational burnout, psychological flexibility did not predict occupational burnout significantly. Because of that, psychological flexibility had no mediating role. Teachers' psychological flexibility differed according to gender in favour of female participants. On the other hand, teachers' psychological flexibility did not differ according to year of experience and age at a statistically significant level.